Anytime
by WeasleySeeker
Summary: Sometimes, all you need is a friend. And sometimes, friends can be found in unexpected places. —Seamus, Lavender, and the Astronomy Tower during seventh year.


It was only when Seamus exited the portrait hole and began his journey along the dim corridors one night that he could suddenly put a name to the painfully empty feeling that he'd had all year: loss.

He realised that since Neville's bed was unoccupied yet again, there was no need to be stealthy about roaming the castle tonight. The Carrows would be in the dungeon having way too much fun punishing the students in detention, so they wouldn't be around to catch Seamus on his little night-time stroll. He no longer feared the wrath of Filch or the prefects. What could they possibly do to him that came close to the things that he'd been through that year? Hogwarts had changed. It felt like he had lost an old friend.

(He tried to ignore the nagging reminder in his head of the empty dormitory that he'd just left; maybe he _had_. There was an endless number of things that could have happened to Dean or Harry and Ron. And if his suspicions were correct, the Carrows wouldn't be waiting long to find an excuse to get rid of Neville and all the trouble he was causing them.)

If only he could go back to the old days, when he still had his best friend, when all he needed to worry about was getting in trouble with McGonagall for being cheeky or for setting something else on fire. And even then, the worst punishments had been having points taken off, writing lines, or sorting through a huge pile of library books. These days, Seamus regularly had the Cruciatus Curse put on him for refusing to torture first years. He was constantly covered in cuts and bruises and he was sure he had some scars that would never fade.

He turned onto the winding staircase that led up to the Astronomy Tower. There was something he loved about the solace of being alone at night up at the highest point of the castle. It helped to clear his head.

However, he did a double-take as he opened the door and found the room occupied. Lavender Brown, textbooks and star charts surrounding the seat by her telescope, turned abruptly as she heard Seamus enter.

"Oh. Seamus," she said, and Seamus heard in her voice the same annoyance that he felt at the disturbance of his solitude. "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing. I just... I like to come here sometimes. I can go somewhere else, though, if you - "

"Oh, no! It's fine," Lavender insisted, looking guilty. "I'm sorry, that was rude. Company might be nice."

"Okay," Seamus said uncertainly. He stood there awkwardly for a few seconds as Lavender peered into the telescope again, before asking unnecessarily, "So what are you doing, then?"

She laughed. "Astronomy work. Isn't it obvious?"

"Er, yeah. I didn't know you took Astronomy for NEWT, though," Seamus said, to try and make himself look less stupid. "Never found it particularly interesting, meself."

"Nor did I, really. McGonagall said I should take it because it's related to Divination. It's grown on me now, though."

"Oh, that's good. Does it get better at NEWT-level, then?" he asked, pretending to be interested.

Lavender hesitated. "This is going to sound really cheesy, but no. It's pretty much the same, and that's why I like it. Everything's changed this year, and there's something... comforting_,_ about the fact that even the Carrows - even _You-Know-Who _- can't change the way the planets move."

"I guess you're right." In seven years of being at school with Lavender, this was the first time that Seamus had ever heard her say anything even vaguely deep. He was surprised. Maybe there was more to her than what he saw on the surface. "So, what are the planets up to this fine night, then?" he asked cheerily; that feeling - _loss_ - was back again, and Seamus wanted a distraction.

"Mars is bright tonight," she said, as if the words were laden with some kind of meaning, but whatever it was, it was completely lost on Seamus. "Look." She ushered him towards the telescope.

He had never paid enough attention in Astronomy lessons to have a clue which of the little pinpricks in the sky was Mars, but that didn't mean that he didn't appreciate the view. It was a clear night, and the bright, pulsating stars and the swirling galaxies above them were pretty spectacular. It looked so peaceful up there; so very far away from everything they had to face.

"See it?"

Deciding to pretend he did, Seamus nodded. "What does it mean?"

"Mars is the bringer of war. It's meant to be a sign that conflict is coming."

Seamus snorted. "Well, it doesn't take a genius to work that one out."

"Hey! I'm not stupid, you know!" Lavender quickly took offence.

"Wait, that's not what I meant!" Seamus protested, aware that he might have touched a nerve with his words. "I mean... we're in the middle of one of the biggest Wizarding wars ever; of course there's conflict coming. I don't need Mars's position to tell me that."

"You still think it, though," Lavender said quietly, looking away from him. "Everyone does. Everyone thinks that I'm some stupid bimbo, just because I'm interested in Divination and because I was too stupid to realise that my ex-boyfriend is, and always was, in love with Hermione Granger."

"We didn't think - "

"I wasn't, though," Lavender interrupted, obviously not done with what she had to say. "I knew all along. The way he looks at her... he never once looked at me like that. But I just didn't want to admit defeat. It was the only time anyone's showed any of that kind of interest in me, and I was desperate for it not to end."

"Hey, _that's_ not true. Loads of people think you're pretty," Seamus told her firmly. "And I asked you to the Yule Ball, didn't I?"

Lavender looked at him almost pitifully. "Yes, but can you really look me in the eye and tell me that it was for my personality and not just for my tits?"

Unfortunately, he couldn't. Lavender was the sort of girl who was declared as "really fit" in the boys' dormitories, and as a fourteen-year-old boy, that had been his priority in choosing his date for the ball. He hadn't even been sure if she _had_ a personality before, but talking to her tonight, he'd begun to see a different side to her. "That was a long time ago," he said evasively.

"Whatever."

"I'm sorry, though," he added, although he doubted it would make much of a difference.

She shrugged. "It's fine. It was a long time ago, like you said."

"All the shit that Ron put you through must have been bad."

"Don't just blame him for it," Lavender sighed, looking a little bit guilty. "I overreacted about a lot of stuff. Hermione's been his best friend for years. And I was, er, a little bit clingy."

From what Seamus had seen and heard, she had been _very_ clingy rather than just a little bit, but he didn't think that telling her this would help anything.

Both of their gazes had drifted back up to the glittering expanse of stars above them.

"Puts things into perspective, this war, doesn't it?" Lavender said softly, wiping a tear that Seamus hadn't noticed from the edge of her eye. "There are probably people dying out there, and here I am crying because boys like my body. Sorry for pouring my heart out to you. We haven't even talked all that much before. And I bet you've got problems of your own to deal with."

"It's fine, honestly. All of us need someone to talk to sometimes. And a different pair of ears can be useful."

"True," Lavender said with a watery chuckle. "Parvati's heard all of this a thousand times."

"Plus, Parvati's not a guy," Seamus pointed out. "I am, and I can tell you straight off that I think you have a bloody fantastic body, but that doesn't mean I don't want to get to know what's inside as well."

_Fuck, I've blown it, _Seamus thought, as Lavender gave him a strange look. He hadn't meant for the first bit of the sentence to come out so enthusiastically. _I've made myself sound like a randy teenager._ "Seamus, I - "

"What I mean to say," he said, cutting across her, "is that anytime you need a friend, I'm here." The glimpses of profundity he'd seen in Lavender that night had made her seem all the more attractive to him, but it was clear that a friend was what Lavender needed right then - and he could do with one himself, too.

Lavender looked relieved (maybe a little disappointed, too, but he could have been imagining that). "Thanks, Seamus," she said, enveloping him in a hug that ended far too soon. "Me too. Anything you want to talk about? You must have come up here for a reason."

"It's nothing. I just... couldn't face being in the dorm on my own," he admitted.

"Oh. Is Neville not up there?" she asked, surprised.

"The Carrows have had him in detention every night this week. I've been there a lot of nights too, of course, but they seem to really _hate_ Neville, for some reason. I'm starting to worry that they'll seriously hurt him. Either that, or chuck him out of school."

Instead of trying to comfort him with empty words, Lavender was realistic. "It wouldn't surprise me. But maybe he'd be safer if they did chuck him out."

"Maybe," Seamus agreed. "But who knows? That's why I can't stand the empty dorm. I worry about all of them."

"I could keep you company in there?" Lavender suggested. "I don't think the Carrows would be best pleased if they found us up here in the morning, and it's getting chilly."

Seamus smiled. "Thanks, Lav - I'd like that. Here, let me help you with this stuff," he said, starting to gather up her books and papers.

He couldn't resist taking one more look up at the night sky before leaving. It was scary, really, the thought that his many of his friends and family were out there, maybe gazing up at the same striking constellations above him, and he had absolutely no idea what they were going through at that moment.

"Seamus?"

"Mm?"

"Mars is getting brighter every night, you know. The time is coming. We're going to end this."

* * *

**A/N: Written for Paintball in the Camp Potter Challenge and the Snakes and Ladders Challenge. This is something I've wanted to write for quite a while, so I hope you enjoyed it! :)**


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